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No. Not Nathan.God, help me get there in time . . . No more tragedy at Elk Lake, please!Hazel couldn’t handle it—she’d lock herself away, worse than before, and never believe that there could possibly be a good God who loved people. Bennett didn’t deserve it—wasn’t he there with the kids, trying to show them a better way of life than their father had demonstrated?
And Hunter? His faith was so young. How would he handle such a disaster right now?
He didn’t want to find out.
“Nathan? It’s Hunter. I’m coming. Talk to me, bud.”
“I’m here.”
Hunter picked his way over the scree field of jagged granite, scanning the ancient avalanche litter with his phone light. “I’m not seeing you. Keep talking. Are you hurt?”
“Yeah. My leg.” Pain soaked Nathan’s voice. “I think it’s busted.”
A sigh—largely of relief because a fall from the ledge should have been much worse than a broken leg—left Hunter’s lungs. “I’m getting closer. Just keep talking to me.”
“I see your light. I’m above you.”
Hunter shifted his phone and scanned higher up.
“Here! I’m here—you just shined the light on me!”
Hunter jerked his hand back. There. Nathan waved both hands over his head, signaling for attention. Hunter scrambled upward, wishing he had the footing of a mountain goat as he slipped and stumbled over the uneven and jagged rise. “I see you, buddy. Just sit tight.”
The climb took much longer than Hunter liked, and it came with several scrapes on his hand and a twisted ankle from bad footing. But he reached Nathan. Scanning the boy with his light in one hand, he gripped Nathan’s shoulder with the other. The boy shivered violently—from cold or from shock, Hunter wasn’t sure. Likely both.
When his flashlight illuminated Nathan’s right leg, Hunter’s stomach dropped. It was bad. Very bad. Ripped jeans soaked in blood. The bone had cut clean through Nathan’s leg.
Nathan quaked intensely. Hunter moved the light from the injury back up to the boy’s face, finding it sheet white—including his lips.
“Stay with me, Nate.” Hunter shook his shoulder. “I’m going to get you out of here, and you’re going to be okay. But I need you to focus on staying with me.”
“My leg . . .”
“Yeah, I know. But you’re going to be okay. Focus on that, not on your leg, all right?”
With an audible gulp, Nathan nodded.
Hunter unzipped his light Columbia coat, unbuttoned his long-sleeved flannel, and ripped a section off the shirt. Bending back over Nathan, he paused before he touched him. “I’m going to wrap this tight above the break, okay?”
Nathan winced.
“It’s gonna hurt like . . . heck.”
With a deep grimace, Nathan nodded and then gripped Hunter’s thermal undershirt.
Guess that meant he was ready. Hunter wrapped the strip of cloth tight, grabbed a nearby twig the thickness a little more than his thumb, and used it as a windlass. Nathan moaned deeply, barely suppressing the shout of pain.
Once the tourniquet was secure, Hunter took a screenshot of his phone so he could relay the time to the medical people. “Okay, buddy, breathe. That part is done. I’m going to call Bennett and Hazel, and then I’m going to see how best to get you to where a vehicle can reach us, okay?”
Nathan slumped back, breath heaving, and nodded.
“Don’t move.” Hunter tapped his phone to call Bennett, all the while moving the light to scan the area above them. Nathan hadn’t fallen from the overlook—he’d missed it by only a couple of feet. “Thank You, God,” Hunter breathed.
“What’s that?” Nathan asked in a meek tone.
“I was thanking God—both that we found you and that you missed the outcropping that overlooks this rockslide. Had you gone off that . . .” Hunter wasn’t sure how Nathanhadn’tgone off that.The trail led right to it. “Thank You, Jesus,” he breathed again.
“Tell me you’ve got him,” Bennett said over the speaker.
